Aww. Soon our “Election 2004” category tag will be obsolete. (Well… I better not say that yet. But seriously, I think it will be.)

NPR this morning was doing a cool thing where they’d just play the raw, unfiltered voices of voters and poll workers — it sounded almost as if these people had called and left messages on some big NPR answering machine, e.g. “Hi, my name is Chet, and I’m workin’ the polls here in Shreveport this morning… it’s a cold day… but let me tell you, the line is out the door!”

Anyway, it was really cool: Everyone sounded excited and, well, surprised by the long lines of voters.

I still think E-Day ought to be a holiday — in fact, it ought to be the holiday, a national celebration of democracy replete with parades and BBQ chicken.

But barring that, it’s nice to feel a sense of enthusiasm and engagement.

I heard the same report this morning and thought it was great, too. This afternoon the local Miami-Dade affiliate was taking calls from M-D and Broward listeners, who talked about their voting experience and also shared their votes. It wasn’t quite as well-produced, but the rawness of it was pretty compelling, too.

I voted with my wife on Sunday, since she’s a high-school teacher who also teaches night-school on Tuesdays. She won’t be able to get away in time to vote today. We waited in line for 3 hours and 45 minutes! Everyone was delightful, though, and even with people marching around us with various and sundry campaign signs (the line went outside and around the corner–so the limitations on campaigning didn’t apply until we got to the front entrance of the building) it was a very positive experience.

In many states, employers are legally required to give their employees enough time to vote, whatever that means. Not Florida, but with early voting and the opportunity for anyone to cast an absentee ballot, I don’t think there are many good excuses not to vote. Unless, of course, you’re casting a protest non-vote. Many of my conservative friends are doing (or not doing, as the case may be) exactly that.